Wednesday, February 4, 2009

I know some of you will roll your eyes in despair because I replaced the dark chocolate in this recipe with white chocolate, but let me at least say that it worked really well! The ice cream itself is not overly sweet, so don’t worry about going into a sugar coma.

Put cherries, milk, 1 cup (240ml) of the cream, sugar, and salt into a medium saucepan. Heat on medium heat until the mixture is steamy, then lower the heat to warm and just let sit for about 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Pour mixture into a blender, or use an immersion blender, and carefully purée (Be careful because you are dealing with a hot liquid. Make sure you hold the cap down on the top of the blender while puréeing).

Put mixture into a large bowl. Stir in the remaining ¾ cup (180ml) of cream. Chill for several hours in the refrigerator until completely cold (Can also place bowl over an ice bath, to speed up the cooling process).

Before putting the mixture into your ice cream maker, stir in the lemon juice and the crème de cassis or other liqueur (or rum) if you are using. Note that you can skip the alcohol if you want, but the addition of it will help the ice cream from getting too icy, and the flavored liqueurs such as kirsch or crème de cassis can add a nice flavor boost to the ice cream. Churn the ice cream in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. When ice cream has finished churning, carefully pour chocolate in a slow stream directly onto ice cream as it churns and continue to churn 30 seconds (chocolate will harden in streaks).Put in an airtight container and place in the freezer for at least an hour, preferably several hours.

When I was a kid, an uncle used to make me hand-churn the ice cream maker. I guess it was an effort to keep me occupied and more importantly quiet. I was so bored. But if Freddie Mercury had been singing in the background, I would have felt like I was in good company. And now that I think of it, Freddie would love this ice cream. I just know he would. Happy New Year of the Ox, dearie!